


Investigation of the Heart

by Naithom



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: Angst, F/M, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Post Episode: s02e07 Blood At The Wheel, discussion of domestic abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:33:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23366986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naithom/pseuds/Naithom
Summary: Worried about Phryne and Jack's relationship, Mac calls him in to provide him with some evidence that might help.Update: Mac woke me up late night announcing she forgot to mention something.
Relationships: Phryne Fisher & Jack Robinson, Phryne Fisher/Jack Robinson
Comments: 16
Kudos: 155





	Investigation of the Heart

It was not unusual during a case for Dr. McMillan to ask Jack to come to the morgue. It was, however, very unusual for her to ask him to meet her in her office at Jude’s College. Jack wondered if the change had anything to do with the change in his relationship with Miss Fisher since the Haynes case.

With this in mind, there was more than a little trepidation when he knocked on the paned window marked “Dr. E. McMillan”.

“Come.” Came the clipped response.

Mac looked up from her paperwork and motioned for Jack to sit on the leather sofa opposite her desk.

“Thanks for coming by. Tea?”

Jack gave her a nod as he looked around the office with its bookshelves and medical posters.

“Is this about a particular case, Doctor?”

“More like an ongoing investigation. What do you know about the aftereffects of abuse?”

Jack shook his head. “No much at all. We usually come in, arrest the offender and the judge and the social workers take it from there.”

Mac shook her head. “Not surprising.” She took a sip of her tea. “When an individual is assaulted on the street, it’s a shock to the system. Their sense of safety is violated but, in most cases, they have a supportive infrastructure to fall back on. With abuse victims, the very people that they would have counted on are the people causing the harm. It’s bad enough when this occurs to an adult but when it occurs to a child it imprints upon them that the world is not safe and that to trust and love someone is dangerous. “

Jack stayed quiet for a moment then asked, “What is abuse occurs as a child and an adult?”

Mac looked him straight in the eye as she said, “If a girl is physically abused by a father and then by a lover, it can have a very serious effect on her attitude towards the concepts of love and relationships. Think of it as a form of battle fatigue.”

His eyes widened as he let her statement sink in. They both knew they weren’t speaking hypothetically. He’d known for some time about the abuse Phryne had suffered at the hands of Rene and had seen her quake in fear at the idea of being in his presence but Phryne had only mentioned snippets that hinted at her father’s behavior. He had dealt with the effects of war after two years in combat, he could barely fathom growing up in that level of turmoil and then dealing with Janey’s death, and the war as well as Rene.

His eyes grew moist and he closed them briefly to keep the tears from spilling.

“How…how do they survive?” His voice sounded gravelly even to his own ears.

“To be honest, some don’t. Some stay in abusive relationships because they are conditioned to believe it’s all they can expect. And some keep relationships at a very shallow level, allowing access to her body to fulfill sexual needs but attempting not to allow themselves the ability to be emotionally intimate for fear of being abused, being controlled again.”

“But she has to know that not every man would be abusive?”

Mac gave him a sad smile and said, “Like every man coming back from war should know that a car backfiring isn’t gunfire.”

“She just seems so, so fearless about everything else, it's hard to comprehend.”

Now it was Mac’s turn to tear-up.

“Phryne is living not just for herself as she is now, she’s living for Janey, for the 19-year-old Phryne who survived a war yet almost didn’t survive her first love affair, and for the 8-year-old who used to climb into my window at night to escape the drunken bastard who beat his wife and kids and locked her in the closet if she tried to protect her mother or her sister.”

As Jack started to reach out a hand to her, she held up her hand and shook her head.

“Men tend to assume that if they have gotten into a woman’s bed, that they have gotten into their hearts. Those men are idiots. How many of them even knew that Janey existed, let alone would have stood with her and held her together at Janey’s grave? How many would know how much she loved Arthur? How many would know why she hates spiders? You’ve been more intimate with Phryne than any man on the Earth and yet you’ve shared only one kiss.

Jack, somewhere behind that wall she’s built, her heart knows that she loves you. Hell, she admitted to you that losing your relationship, was like a death to her. Now she just has to admit it to herself and put the evidence together and see the facts for what they are. She knows somewhere deep down because she’s been without “physical distractions” for several months now. Seems the last couple of distractions ended with her calling out your name at a crucial moment.”

His eyes widened and then, as he took it all in, a mischievous smirk broke across his face. He looked down sheepishly and once again composed asked. “Mac, why did you decide to tell me all this?”

She thought for several moments and then the redhead’s eyes twinkled. “She is more family than a friend and I know her as well as I know myself. And to use the Bard, “She will die if you love her not, and she will die ere she might make her love known.”

And with that, she sent Jack out to successfully solve the investigation of Phryne’s heart.


End file.
